Briefs

May 31, 2006

AUTO RACINGStewart expected to start race Defending series champion Tony Stewart is expected to start this weekend in Dover, Del., despite a broken shoulder blade that knocked him out of Sunday's event at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Ricky Rudd, who has yet to race this season, will practice and qualify the car and be on standby to relieve Stewart if he needs to get out of the car. "You know he's going to try," Jimmy Makar, vice president of Joe Gibbs Racing, said Tuesday. Under NASCAR's unforgiving scoring system, a driver must start a race to receive any points. He can be replaced in the car anytime after the first lap. This injury has already hurt him in the standings -- he dropped from second to fourth, 231 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, after wrecking out of Sunday night's race and finishing 42nd. NASCAR pleased with COT test NASCAR officials are closer to a final design on their "Car of Tomorrow" after a successful test session Tuesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Eight drivers spent the morning conducting single-lap runs, then grouped together for two 20-lap segments of side-by-side racing. The cars were able to pass one another and ran well in traffic, which didn't happen during an earlier test at Atlanta. "I think there's definitely something to work with here," Ryan Newman said. "It's aesthetically not pleasing to me, but that's not the point. It's all about the racing." The Car of Tomorrow is a bigger, boxier vehicle with a front-end splitter that NASCAR has designed to eventually replace the slick aerodynamic models that manufacturers spent the past 10 years developing. The COT is schedule to run in 15 races next season in a phase-in process that will be complete by 2009. The model tested Tuesday debuted a new rear wing that looks similar to what can be found on street cars, not stock cars. BILLIARDSSteve "The Miz" Mizerak dies at 61 Steve Mizerak, winner of multiple pool championships who became one of the game's more recognizable figures by appearing in training videos, beer commercials and a movie, has died at age 61, his wife said Tuesday. Mizerak died Monday in Palm Beach (Fla.) County from complications stemming from gall bladder surgery, Karen Mizerak told The Associated Press. "The Miz" won four U.S. Open Championships and dozens of other billiards tournaments in his professional career, which began when he was 13. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1980. Mizerak also made a difficult trick shot in a now-famous commercial for Miller Lite. Mizerak appeared in the 1986 film "The Color of Money," playing an opponent of Paul Newman's character, Fast Eddie Felson. COLLEGE FOOTBALLNavy has deal for possible bowl berth Navy has reached an agreement that makes its team eligible for the Meineke Car Care Bowl, game officials announced Tuesday. The deal assures a bowl-eligible Navy or the No. 3 selection from the Big East Conference will play an Atlantic Coast Conference team. In 2005, the Midshipmen sold 20,000 tickets for the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, and officials estimate that Navy helped draw up to 35,000 people to the contest.